I'd completely forgotten about this old FB post you kindly shared with us regarding someone's claims of Lynx 720...

This is what he said regarding 720 Degrees on the Lynx over at the Atari Lynx Fans Facebook group:

"The Lynx version was near complete according to STUN Runner programmer D. Scott Williamson, so no idea why it wan't released. Here is a screenshot: It was just licensed from Tengen, game was being programmed in house at Atari's Chicago development studio."

That's NOT how it was reported in RetroGamer magazine at the time...

D.Scott Williamson is quoted as saying he clearly remembers Lynx 720 being coded, coin op being in his office..

Matt Scott who had found code, sending it onto D.Scott Williamson, but and i quote:

"Sadly it just turned out to be a demo of the skateboard character in the centre of the screen who was rotable with the joypad".

Article then just states the hunt for lynx version and why it was never released continues.

There's nothing about D.Scott giving any indication it was pretty much finished.

These games aren't able to run on the Game Boy or Game Gear but the Lynx is powerful enough so that ports of these would be more than possible.

Another thing the Lynx needed ports of was more Adventure and RPG games, the Lynx was the ONLY portable that was weak on those. While the quality was questionable, the GB and GG had a number Adventure games and Rpgs to choose from. I think the only game that would technically qualify in those categories would be Bill and Ted unless I'm forgetting something.

My bad, I meant Rastan 2. It's sometimes called Rastan Saga despite it being the second game.

As for cancelled games well, Atari had issues with that for all their later consoles. They really should have tried to get a few of those types of games earlier though. I know they wanted to make LYNX an arcade powerhouse, but they really where the only portable lacking those genres.

But otherwise, I still believe the Lynx was Ataris best console in terms of library since being renamed Atari Corp.

In amongst the many zip files of Atari documentation Scott Stilphen sent me and i converted and shared online or passed onto Atarimania for their WIP Lynx section, we're key documents relating to 2 very high profile Lynx titles.

Vindicators was 1 of them.

I could of simply posted the documents up and left it at that, but i felt these games deserved a proper investigation.

So they were passed onto a friend of mine and have been used as part of a much bigger lost games project.

All i know at this stage is thanks to the documents, he tracked down the coders and conducted lengthy Skype interviews with them.

I've not seen the transcripts or write ups based on them myself.

But he has researched and documented countless lost games over the years and recovered many titles once believed lost.

I'm eagerly awaiting the official annoucement of his project and hope people understand why i took the approach i did.

We've waited years for a credible investigation to these titles and a few more months won't hurt.

In amongst the many zip files of Atari documentation Scott Stilphen sent me and i converted and shared online or passed onto Atarimania for their WIP Lynx section, we're key documents relating to 2 very high profile Lynx titles.

Vindicators was 1 of them.

I could of simply posted the documents up and left it at that, but i felt these games deserved a proper investigation.

So they were passed onto a friend of mine and have been used as part of a much bigger lost games project.

All i know at this stage is thanks to the documents, he tracked down the coders and conducted lengthy Skype interviews with them.

I've not seen the transcripts or write ups based on them myself.

But he has researched and documented countless lost games over the years and recovered many titles once believed lost.

I'm eagerly awaiting the official annoucement of his project and hope people understand why i took the approach i did.

We've waited years for a credible investigation to these titles and a few more months won't hurt.

Here's a man who knew how good the Lynx conversion was and how poor the home micro versions were:

As the designer of the original game, I was given a comp-copy of
S.T.U.N. Runner for the Lynx.

The conversion is FAR SUPERIOR!!! to the dreadful one
done for the PC by Domark. This game is still FAST!!! and that was
the whole point behind the game. The graphics are pretty accurate,
considering the resolution, and the sounds are faithful. The only
real problem I'm having is getting used to the controls, but most
games are like that. I'll probably continue to play the full
arcade game I have in my garage, but when I need a fix on the road,
this version will do nicely, thank you.

(Regarding the awful, awful home micro ports Domark were putting out)

I fully intend to pass it on to the
powers that be at Tengen (they're the ones with the final authority on
licensing product). Indeed, we're not blind to it, and many of our engineers
complain about it all the time...